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Mars-Cat LbNA #34492 (ARCHIVED)

Owner:Adoptable
Plant date:Aug 4, 2007
Location:
City:Tucson
County:Pima
State:Arizona
Boxes:1
Planted by:The Pink Ladies
Found by: Simple Dreamer
Last found:Apr 17, 2009
Status:FFFFFFFFFFFa
Last edited:Aug 4, 2007
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration took flight again in August of 2007 – the Phoenix Mars Mission. Like the Phoenix bird of ancient mythology, the Phoenix mars Mission is reborn out of fire; this new mission was created from the embers of previous Mars endeavors. Phoenix will use many componets of two unsuccessful Mars missions, MPL and MSP '01.

This is NASA’s first Scout Program and Phoenix is designed to study the history of water and search for complex organic molecules in the ice-rich soil of the martian arctic. The Phoenix Mars Lander Mission is operated for NASA by the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory at The University of Arizona (UA), home of the Arizona Wildcats.

So it should come as no shock that the UA community is excited about the UA going to Mars. For the historic launch the Pima Air & Space Museum opened their facility up the public to see some of the aeronautics history and see special exhibits for both young and old about the NASA space programs and planetary sciences. It was a fun day.

As this letterbox was being planted, the Phoenix is riding on a Boeing Delta II rocket to Mars. The Phoenix is schedule to land on the martian north polar region in May 2008 and continue operations through September 2008. In honor of this historic event the Mars-Cat letterbox is being planted.

To find the Mars-Cat travel to 6000 E. Valencia Rd. – the main entrance to the Pima Air & Space Museum. You can park in the parking lot inside the gate. Then walk back to the monument sign for the Pima Air & Space Museum – the 3 planes are flying in formation above this sign. From there look to the East/North East for a lone Saguaro nestled under a mesquite tree. Buried at the base of the Mesquite you will find the Mars-Cat letterbox.